Look how well all those people are dressed, and in an era when a nice suit cost ten times what it does today in relation to incomes. What drove people to inves

Look how well all those people are dressed, and in an era when a nice suit cost ten times what it does today in relation to incomes. What drove people to invest so much in looking nice and formal in public? I wonder if it was the same force that kept people from destroying those nice woven seat cushions -- they'd be in shreds today or stink of dust and infestations like BART seats. Anyway, I wouldn't dress up that nice for a job interview or a first date, but regular working people are investing more than I would spend on a car to go out in nice clothes every day. I don't understand what socioeconomic forces drive that kind of commitment to the particular and narrow common good of a well dressed public impression.